


In A Different Order

by still_lycoris



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Anger, Gen, Obsession, Self-Hatred, Time Travel, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27179602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: The Master has to avoid the Doctor while waiting seventy-seven years to catch up with himself. But he doesn't have to avoid himself.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 23
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	In A Different Order

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AstroGirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstroGirl/gifts).



The worst thing about being stuck on Earth for seventy-seven years while waiting to catch up to his own timeline is not the having to escape from the various annoying human agencies. It’s not having to deal with the inanity of humans in general. It’s not even the fact that the planet is a primitive nightmare and he can’t leave it for seventy-seven years.

No, the worst thing is having to watch and avoid all his former selves various plans along the way.

They aren’t all bad. Really, he is incredibly brilliant quite often. But knowing they don’t succeed does rather dampen the fun of watching them from a distance and his latest plan is so amazing that it’s all a bit depressing to watch old ones which just pale in comparison really. And, of course, he can’t tell himself that. Shattering the web of time might be delightful fun at another point in his existence but it would also ruin his current plan and he’s not stupid, that’s going to be too wonderful to miss for this little bit of chaos – although perhaps next time –

(Actually, the _most_ annoying thing is having to avoid the Doctor for so long. He itches for it, burns for it. The Doctor is so close and he could just find him or her, any incarnation and he _wants_ it but his plan, his lovely plan ... and her face was _glorious_ when she worked out who he was, the throb of glory was almost incomparable and he won’t spoil that by leaving any hints in previous Doctors minds. So he keeps back, resisting his urges. One of his skills is sitting back and waiting when required. He can – and will – be patient. For seventy-seven years. It’s annoying. But it will be worth it. Patience.)

Of course, he doesn’t have to be so circumspect with his previous selves. He can run into them any time he chooses – as long as he’s a little careful. He did kill himself one time – well, possibly more than one time, there’s a few regenerations here and there where things are a bit confused and some others which might just be collateral damage for a plan he didn’t know that he was involved with – as it were. There’s got to be a few accidents here and there when you’re a visionary of chaos and death after all. You can’t always be absolutely certain that the bit of the universe you’re wiping out might not have another you in it. If you thought about that too much, you’d never get anything done.

He runs into one of his earlier selves by accident – he always thinks of this self as the dapper one, the first one who realised just how nice a little goatee could be. He’s been avoiding a lot of that self’s plans – this self’s favourite Doctor was stuck here, so this self is often around here too. This self was once arrested on Earth for a time too – it was the first time the Master ever really learned to appreciate human television.

Dapper Goatee seems rather pleased to see him and they have a very civilised meal together with a lot of wine, reminiscing about Miss Grant and UNIT. He doesn’t tell his earlier self that UNIT’s a bit disappointing now. The Brigadier should never have been allowed to leave. Without him, they honestly just fell apart. But that’s the future and his old self doesn’t need to worry about it. It’s all quite fun really. They successfully convince the restaurant to charge the whole meal to Sergeant Benton and part amicably, wishing each other good luck with their endeavours. He knows his past self will fail but never mind. He quite liked being that self. It was almost relaxing in a way. He didn’t seem to _burn_ so much then. Plans were plans and you didn’t have to worry about them.

The other goateed self is a bit less polite and a bit more chaotic but that’s nice too, in its way. It was always strange, being in that body. Although he was able to blend the bodies together and make it more like a Time Lord one, it had never felt as right as it could have done. Still, he got through it. He survives everything. What was it one of his little colleagues said at MI6? They were talking about cockroaches and their ability to survive everything. Some people are like cockroaches really, doomed to go on and on and on – 

He doesn’t tell any of this to his other goatee self, of course. They have a fairly friendly chat which ends with his other self getting a bit shirty because he’s rather possessive of “his” Doctor. He doesn’t seem to believe the Master when he says he’s avoiding all Doctors – which is understandable, really. It isn’t their normal raison d’être, avoiding the Doctor. It’s one of the reasons his plan is so brilliant. But it’s often difficult to convince his past selves of anything. They part rather swiftly and the Master considers annoying his past self’s Doctor just out of principle, but he doesn’t. Strength. Patience. Only thirty-four years to go.

(besides, he’s not quite sure which his past self means. There were quite a few Doctors. He thinks it’s the blond one that was weirdly obsessed with cricket but it could equally be the one with the fascinating taste in coats.)

He contacts the self that is Harold Saxon on purpose. What’s the point of being prime minister if you don’t help set your future self up with a flat and some money? (and money has been difficult, often. You can have it and lose it in so many ways and a lot of the ways to get it are ... degrading.)

“It’s hilarious really,” Harold Saxon says happily, leading him around the fancy place. “They’d look into the expenditure, find you and probably think I had some sort of gay love affair. Humans are so _prurient_ , even in this time period. It’d be all “gay scandal” and “How’s his poor wife taking the situation?” Almost tempted to leak it but it would spoil things a bit and Lucy wouldn’t like it. She gets so silly about things like that.”

It’s funny, but the Master can’t help feeling that his previous self is treating Lucy rather badly. He remembers liking her quite a lot and can’t recall why the previous self doesn’t. Regenerations can be like that sometimes. Confusing. Things get left behind. Sometimes, possibly important things but you can’t spend too much time worrying about that or you’d go mad. 

Madd _er._

He sells everything in the flat immediately, of course and moves the money around so it isn’t linked to his old self at all. Mostly because he has a feeling that after he is very unfairly assassinated by his wife, people will probably investigate where all the money went and then he’ll be on the streets again – but also, because he doesn’t quite trust himself not to instantly cheat himself. He hasn’t forgotten that he exists because this glorious, burning furious self shot him when he was a woman.

Sometimes, thinking about his own life is confusing.

(the Year That Never Was is unavoidable and extremely tedious. It’s not even much fun watching all the humans being upset by it because it actually makes it seventy-eight years. He decides not to count it. Only the Doctor will remember it and she’ll probably have forgotten by the time that he can complain about all this. 

He avoids Martha Jones. He doesn’t trust himself that much.)

Meeting himself as a woman is actually almost sad. He knows that he lost something that she had, something that might have been quite important but it’s blocked. The regeneration was painful, almost didn’t work at all. He barely even remembers being her, except for the fact that he killed himself when he was her. But that’s her future and right now, she’s got a lovely umbrella and wants to torment the Doctor’s latest friend and is rather surprised to see him.

“Don’t remember being you,” she says. “Are you the future?”

“That’s me!”

“Oh, that’s a bit of a shame. I quite like the bounce. That and stabbing all the men who try to open doors for me, it’s hilarious when you see their faces!”

He remembers that, quite well actually. It _was_ good fun. He might have to resurrect that.

“If it makes you feel better, the Doctor’s a woman now,” he says and his fingers itch as he thinks about the Doctor with her hair and her new face and being just that little bit shorter than him and he wants her back in front of him, he wants to tell her exactly what happened, exactly what he has done, he wants her to scream as Earth turns into nothing ... but patience. Patience.

Missy grins.

“Oooh! Bet she isn’t as pretty as us. I might have to go and meet her, do a little comparison, what do you think?”

He scowls. This Doctor is _his_ , he doesn’t want to share her. Missy sees his scowl and grins more.

“Feeling a bit possessive of this one? Oh come now, we all have to share you know. It’s just not fair to try and keep a Doctor all to yourself and she hasn’t been a woman before, you got to let us all try it out.”

She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know, can’t know, doesn’t know that the Doctor, the Doctor’s been a woman, maybe a thousand woman and the knowledge burns in him, like fire and he hates it, he hates everything, he wants to cut it out, he wants to cut it out of _everyone_ , he wants to burn every world and every being until it’s _not real_.

“Oh, I became an angry one,” Missy says and she sounds quiet, almost thoughtful. “I guess that means it’s going to hurt. I always get crosser if it hurts when I die.”

She’s right, it did hurt and it took ages too, every single cell seeming to take its time to tick slowly over into his new shape, burning and tearing as it did. It’s not why he’s angry. But he can’t tell her anything else so he nods and Missy smiles.

“Oh well. I expect we’ll blow up whoever was responsible afterwards. Do you fancy working together for a bit and making some people miserable? We could team up and torment your new Doctor together if you’re so jealous. It’s always so much fun to double team them, they never see it coming. Maybe I could disguise myself as a damsel in distress, I haven’t done a proper disguise for so long, remember when we used to do those masks? I could do a mask ...”

It’s genuinely tempting but he shakes his head.

“I need to surprise her,” he explains. “I have an amazing plan, can’t spoil it with her seeing my too early face and then it’s going to work and the Doctor will be out of our hair forever. It’s the best plan that we’ve ever had. You’ll love it. When you get there.”

She laughs and gives him a quick kiss on the lips, then twirls her umbrella and skips away. He watches her go. He misses being her. He misses being all of his other selves in a way. They build up to being _him_ and he wants to believe he’s the best of them all but he’s not sure because he’s so angry and so tired and if the Doctor kills him, maybe it will finally all stop and he will actually have won?

It’s a new feeling. He doesn’t like it. But he’ll carry on because he has purpose and that always keeps him going. 

Chaos. Darkness. Destruction. That’s what he is. What he’s always been.

Some things never change.


End file.
